Christiane Amanpour, Sheila Johnson to be Guests for Exclusive Interview on Saturday’s WMC Live

October 3, 2013

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Award-winning journalist Christiane Amanpour and media mogul Sheila C. Johnson will be guests Saturday on “Women’s Media Center Live with Robin Morgan,” during a special show on WMC’s annual Women’s Media Awards that celebrate women game changers in media.

Amanpour, chief international correspondent for CNN and global affairs anchor of ABC News, will receive the Women’s Media Center’s Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at the 2013 Women’s Media Awards, 583 Park Avenue in New York City. Johnson, founding partner of Black Entertainment Television (BET) and executive producer of “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” will accept the Women's Media Center's Visionary Role Model and Corporate Leader Award. Lily Tomlin will host the event.

On WMClive, Amanpour — who has reported from every major world news event and hotspot — discusses her reporting in Bosnia, Rwanda and Syria and how she worked her way up at CNN.

“I know how hard it is to get to the top of your profession and stay there and to use it in a responsible way,” she tells host Robin Morgan in an exclusive and rare interview. She also shares her greatest pride and regret.

During her combined tenures at CNN and ABC News, Amanpour has interviewed most of the world’s top leaders.

Pat Mitchell, president and CEO of The Paley Center and chair emerita of The Women’s Media Center, will present the award named in her honor to Amanpour, who has earned nearly every major television journalism award. Mitchell, who joins Amanpour on the radio show, applauds Amanpour for her ability to “seek the truth and hold leaders responsible.”

Johnson shares behind-the-scenes stories and challenges in the creation and production of “Lee Daniels’ The Butler,” which is considered a movie awards contender.

BET, she says, was founded to fill the void of diverse images on television. “I wanted to give black America a voice,” she tells Morgan. Johnson adds that she is concerned that black Americans “are losing our voice.”

Gloria Steinem, co-founder of the Women’s Media Center, will present the award to Johnson, who also is CEO of Salamander Hotels; vice chairman of Monumental Sports & Entertainment and president and managing partner of the WNBA’s Washington Mystics. She is the only African-American woman to have ownership in three professional sports teams. She has been executive producer of four documentary films.

Other guests on Saturday’s show are Maria Teresa Kumar, an Emmy-nominated contributor for MSNBC and president and CEO of Voto Latino and Carol Jenkins, former and founding president of WMC. Kumar will receive the Women’s Media Center’s Carol Jenkins Emerging Journalist Award. Other honorees are MAKERS, a 3-hour documentary event, “Women Who Make America’; Mary Thom (in memoriam) Ms. Magazine editor and WMC Features editor for The Women’s Media Center. The WMC Social Media Award winner will be announced during the celebration.

The Women’s Media Center works to make women and girls visible and powerful in the media through strategic programs that transform the media landscape, and that include media training, media monitoring and activism, media reports, media programs, an expert database and special initiatives. The Women’s Media Center also publishes Women’s Media Center Features that provide progressive women’s perspectives on both headline stories and timely events.